“Not only had the comedian paid the debt, he also alleviated Eric of having to pay any taxes on his "cancellation of debt" income. That's because the series paid for Eric's debt through "RIP Medical Debt," as a 501(c)(3) charity. Eric's debt was paid off, no strings attached.

“The show cautioned that this was for this medical debt only and not future medical debts.”

The scene in question, which appeared in season six of the show and not in the book, set the PC community ablaze with outrage. It's been criticized as being aired for sheer shock value, and for having no narrative value. People are straight up pissed.

George R.R. Martin approves of the producers decision to air the scene, and told the press his novels were written with the intent to portray the unfettered brutality employed with acts of rape as a means to get what one wanted throughout ancient European history.

This is a dark show and fans need to consider toning down their violent reactions.

Sesame will be able to produce almost twice as much new content as previous seasons, and for the first time ever, make the show available free of charge to PBS and its member stations after a nine-month window.

There are no particular details yet such as will it be a mirror of HBO Go for non paying cable customers or will it be some kind of watered down version to keep the big boys like Comcast happy.

Speaking at the Time Warner Inc. Investor Meeting today, Richard Plepler, chairman and CEO, HBO, announced that the company will offer a stand-alone HBO streaming service in 2015. Following a portion of his presentation focused on HBO's domestic business, during which he cited significant growth opportunities inside the pay-TV universe, Plepler then turned to the current ten million broadband-only homes, which is projected to grow.

Plepler then added: "That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped. It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO.

"So, in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them."

The acclaimed director known for films like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and most recently, Noah, has recently started development with HBO on a new series based on Margaret Atwood's highly-acclaimed futuristic book trilogy.

The project, based on Margaret Atwood's novel trilogyOryx and Crake (2003), Year Of The Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013) is set in the mid-21st century in a world where corporations have taken over for governments and the genetic modification of organisms is perversely ubiquitous. It centers on the events before and after a Waterless Flood that wipes out almost all of the world's population and follows an extensive cast of characters, including those responsible for the apocalypse and those struggling to survive it.

Atwood will serve as a consulting producer on the new project. Aronofsky and his team are currently meeting with writers.

An English village named Kings Langsley plans to change its name to Kings Landing - the name of the main fictional city in HBO's popular series, Game of Thrones. The change will occur for the first week of the show's season 3 DVD release.
The planned change came to fruition when one of the show's producers heard Kings Langsley was a stop along the route of a train he was on. After talking with village officials about the possibility of them temporarily changing the area's name starting February 17th, they agreed with the hope that local business owners will get on board to encourage a growth in tourism.

The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's new HBO creation that goes behind the scenes of a cable TV newsroom, is the writer's first small-screen effort since Studio 60 famously derailed following a promising pilot episode. Here's hoping he can sustain his recent wave of success (The Social Network, Moneyball), because Sorkin writing for HBO just reeks of awesome.

TV Show Promo of the Day: HBO has released the first official teaser for its upcoming Jay Roach-helmed political drama, Game Change.

The made-for-TV-movie, which stars Ed Harris as John McCain, Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, and Woody Harrelson as campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, was based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's same-named book

Old-Timey Subway Train Campaign of the Day: To promote the upcoming second season of its critically acclaimed period series Boardwalk Empire, HBO, with a little help from NYC's MTA, will install a throwback subway train that will run through September 25th -- the show's premiere date.